<p>I heard that lately there were some christian groups on Harvard Square doing some radical things. Does anyone know what the deal is? Has anyone witnessed them? What are they like? Just curious.</p>
<p>I think they’re on every college campus. They tend to come out in the spring.</p>
<p>Lmao at DayMan’s last sentence. Makes them sound like an animal that makes an annual appearance…“Like their relative the common brown bear, Christians emerge from a long period of hibernation in the spring, and may often be seen frolicking around Harvard Square in late March or early April.”</p>
<p>Some girls apparently came all the way from Kansas to evangelize in the Boston area. They accosted me on my way to lecture one morning and even though I told them I was a believer, they wouldn’t leave me alone until I let them invite me to their “temple.” Strange.</p>
<p>Kansas? Were they by any chance from the Westboro Baptist Church?</p>
<p>The way I deal with unwanted evangelists is to just keep repeating “God bless you” and keep moving.</p>
<p>I ran into some of their brethren in Ann Arbor last month.</p>
<p>Every denomination has their radicals. My son is in a Christian group at Harvard and I can assure you that they don’t go around accosting people. They don’t have the time nor do they believe in that. I agree with coureur, just keep walking</p>
<p>While it’s true that Christian evangelists are a not unusual appearance at college campuses in the spring, this happened to be a special occurrence, organized at least in part by a conservative Christian group known as the Justice House of Prayer.</p>
<p>[TheCall</a> : Boston](<a href=“http://www.thecall.com/Groups/1000058012/TheCall/ezekiel2230/Events/Boston/Boston.aspx]TheCall”>http://www.thecall.com/Groups/1000058012/TheCall/ezekiel2230/Events/Boston/Boston.aspx)</p>
<p>I would second other posters in noting that these individuals are neither related to Christian groups on campus nor representative of their behavior.</p>
<p>nevermind.</p>
<p>As you keep moving, it also helps if you avoid eye contact</p>
<p>fledgling, they are not from Westboro. Westboro people are not Christians.</p>
<p>Dwight, what do you mean by “accosted”?</p>
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<p>I’m actually very much inclined to agree with that statement. What kind of “Christians” go around picketing funerals and demeaning anything and everything with statements of hatred anyway?! /endrant</p>
<p>Well, anyway, they do consider themselves to be Christians whether I agree with that or not, and I saw Kansas mentioned, so the WBC instantly came to mind. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else :P</p>
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<p>Yeah but they call themselves Christians, so until you find out that one of its members is from Westboro, you would tend to believe him if he were to call himself a Christian no?</p>
<p>It’s a tricky argument trying to define the extent to which your actions deny your statement of faith. The Catholic Church didn’t consider Protestants Christians for however long…</p>
<p>The same issue applies to Muslims, too, since the Muslims that assassinated Anwar Sadat, a professed Muslim, didn’t see themselves as killing another Muslim. There’s of course no reason why I’m mentioning this apart from the fact that I’m writing a term paper on it and I feel like talking about it.</p>
<p>Okay, you cannot compare the actions of Westboro church with the Protestant Reformation. </p>
<p>Westboro is a small group of people who are doing outright crazy things - both by religious and secular standards.</p>
<p>The Protestants were a small group of people doing unbelievably radical things (questioning the dogma of the Catholic Church - unfathomable) once upon a time, too…</p>
<p>On a slightly related note, what would you feel is the proportion of atheists on campus? I’ve never really felt that this would be an issue (being an atheist myself), but it’s good to have the opinions of others anyway, I suppose.</p>
<p>I’ve never felt truly comfortable with my atheism in high school/etc., but I’ve really never expected it to be much of an issue in university (of course, I’m aware that I’ll always meet those who have opinions that contrast with mine, but I’m speaking on the general level).</p>
<p>From what I know, Harvard students are generally pretty liberal.</p>
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<p>I’m not saying the Westboro Baptists are Christians, because their message is pretty anti-Christian. I’m just saying that once upon a time, people thought Protestants were going straight to hell.</p>
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<p>I’m not aware of any outspoken atheist groups here on campus. Most people don’t really go around introducing themselves and immediately sharing their religious orientations. The thing you can count on is that almost everyone here is respectful, thoughtful, and open to discussion about their religious beliefs. </p>
<p>To the above poster, you can be both Christian and “liberal.”</p>
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<p>As I’m involved with the Harvard Secular Society, Harvard’s atheist student organization, I’ve responded to that fantastic question before:</p>
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<p>Incidentally, the Mythbusters event occurred last Friday and was FANTASTIC. Be sure to let me know, by PM if you prefer, if you have further questions about atheism or humanism at Harvard!</p>